Abstract

Whereas listed family firms have already received great attention concerning the effect of the crisis on
performance, few studies focus on private family firms acting in a hostile environment. This paper tries to fill
this gap by investigating how the financial and economic crises affect the relationship between family
involvement and performance. This research is led on the Belgian market and based on panel data collected on
the period 2002-2011. Multiple regression analysis and Heckman two-steps method show that private family
firms exhibit greater performance during the crisis. These results seem to confirm that family involvement
enhances potential of resilience in private firms so that they outperform their non-family peers during periods of
crisis.

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